Veteran journalist passes away

Colombo, 05 April, (Asiantribune.com): Veteran Sri Lankan Journalist Mallika Wanigasundera passed away early Friday April 4 after a prolonged illness. She was 81 and single. Mallika who passed out as a arts graduate from the former University of Ceylon, joined Lake House in 1956 after working briefly as a press officer for the then Health Minister A.E. Nugawela.

She first joined the Sinhala language Janatha when Esmond Wickremesinghe was Lake House Chairman. She later started writing for the Ceylon Observer and Daily News on politics, economics and current affairs and also did film and drama reviews. Nurtured in the journalistic tradition of Lake House founder Chairman D.R. Wijewardena, Mallika wrote the Daily News editorials for 10 years.

She was one of the few journalists who were determined to draw public attention to the sessions of the Sinhala Commission, which received scant attention from the anti-national media and was scoffed at by some of those in the ruling circles.

At the time of her retirement from the Lake House editorial staff in 1981, she was Features Editor, Daily News. An ardent Buddhist and patriot, she wrote extensively to various publications – including the Asian Tribune – on Buddhism and national issues.

She was a vehement opponent of foreign-funded Christian evangelists engaging in unethical conversions and was also highly concerned over outsiders encroaching on in Buddhist temple lands in the East, especially attempts to illegally grab land belonging to the Muhudu Maha Viharaya.

Mallika who was a recipient of the Gold Medal for Excellence in Journalism served on the panel that selected journalists for awards and was also a member of the Press Complaints Commission.